Attorneys for a Louisiana man accused of killing a toddler in Knox County want to question the medical examiner during trial about a past drunk driving offense and whether he had been drinking around the time he worked on the child’s autopsy report.

Aziayh Scott, 24, has been charged with manslaughter in connection with the May 2024 death of Quayshawn Wilson, the 22-month-old son of his girlfriend at the time. He is scheduled for a jury trial in Knox County starting Monday.

Scott pleaded not guilty in November 2024 and has challenged Quayshawyn’s cause of death. Prosecutors have accused Scott of stomping on the boy several hours before the child was found to be unresponsive during a trip to Walmart in Thomaston the night of May 29, 2024. Scott’s attorneys argue the injuries documented in Quashawn’s autopsy report might have resulted instead from people who tried rendering aid to the toddler before police arrived at the scene.

Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Liam Funte determined Quayshawn died from a severely lacerated liver.

Funte was under monitoring by the Maine Professionals Health Program at the time, after failing to immediately report that he had been charged with operating a vehicle under the influence in September 2023, while on call. Funte pleaded guilty on Oct. 17, according to Cumberland County court records, and agreed not to drink alcohol for two years, in exchange for a deferred sentencing.

Funte agreed to random drug and alcohol testing as part of the monitoring agreement. He tested positive for alcohol twice in June 2024, according to an agreement he signed with the Maine Board of Medical Licensure. He told monitoring staff before the first test that he hadn’t been drinking.

Scott’s attorneys say these violations occurred after Funte handled Quayshawn’s autopsy on May 30, 2024, and before he signed the autopsy report later that summer.

The defense has challenged Funte’s report, alleging he did not “adequately document or measure” the extent of the toddler’s injuries in the report, contrary to national recommended performance standards for forensic pathologists.

“These failures may suggest that Dr. Funte performed this autopsy while either under the influence of alcohol or while experiencing other mental health issues and the credibility of his ultimate opinion is further cast in doubt,” Scott’s attorney Christopher MacLean wrote in court records.

The defense is asking permission to question Funte about these concerns and others during trial. Superior Court Justice John O’Neil did not immediately decide the issue during a hearing Friday in Waldo County Superior Court.

It was not clear from a live Zoom feed of the hearing on Friday whether Funte was present. He was not called on to testify or answer questions.

Neither Funte nor a spokesperson for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner responded to requests for comment Friday.

Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin said in court Friday that the defense was making a “quantum leap” between the licensing board’s findings and Funte’s autopsy report in Scott’s case.

“We disagree that Dr. Funte was skirting any minimum recommendations,” Robbin said. “There is zero evidence that any of the issues in that consent agreement affected his ability to do the autopsy in this case.”

Robbin said autopsies are typically performed with two assistants and that Funte also had two Maine State Police officers in the room.

“If there was any indication that alcohol was involved, we would know that by now,” Robbin said.

O’Neil is considering another request from MacLean, regarding whether attorneys can ask Funte during the trial about a 2022 lawsuit in Mississippi, where Funte was accused of signing off on an inaccurate autopsy report blaming a Black woman for the death of her newborn daughter.

Hospital records later showed the baby had died from a medical condition, according to the lawsuit, and injuries to the child’s body were from medical staff trying to save her.

The lawsuit was dismissed in May 2024, although court records don’t state why. MacLean said the Mississippi case still raises “troubling questions about racial bias” because Scott is Black. The attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Mississippi lawsuit Friday.

O’Neil is also still weighing whether MacLean can question Funte about sealed records referencing a human resources investigation and disciplinary action against Funte. As MacLean began describing the records, Robbin stopped him, repeating that they are confidential because they are personnel records.

“Has the law court ever addressed whether or not these types of confidentiality orders are actually constitutionally appropriate when a defendant has a right to a fair and public trial?” O’Neil asked during the hearing Friday.

Funte was disciplined by the medical examiner’s office in December 2020, according to a copy of the document previously provided to the Press Herald in response to a public records request, and placed on a 30-day unpaid suspension. It’s unclear what prompted the discipline, and the state has refused to turn over further documentation.

Scott’s attorneys say the state has no other evidence tying their client to Quashawn’s death. There are no confessions or witnesses to any assault, though prosecutors have said a neighbor watched Scott carry Quayshawn to the car the day of his death, with the child’s head tilted back “in a very concerning manner.”

Scott’s attorneys say he has no criminal history and they have disputed allegations made by the state in 2024 that Scott had a history of domestic violence with another woman in Mississippi.

In 2024, Scott was living in Owls Head, where his girlfriend at the time, Shaneka Washington, was a traveling nurse. She has also disputed the allegations against Scott, according to reporting from the Midcoast Villager.

On the day of Quayshawn’s death, Scott spent the entire afternoon with the toddler, watching him after Washington fed the boy lunch and left for work, according to an affidavit from Maine State Police. It wasn’t until that evening, when the couple was outside the Walmart, that they noticed Quayshawn was unresponsive and began shouting for help.

Two people, including an off-duty nurse, tried administering CPR. Prosecutors played a video of officers arriving on scene that night in court on Friday.

Scott, who sat between his attorneys in court Friday morning, buried his head in his hands and wiped at his eyes as the video showed Quayshawn.